Author: Katie

Neuromechanics & Mobility Lab Presents at NWBS 2025

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Members of the Neuromechanics & Mobility Lab traveled to Vancouver, BC for the 2025 Northwest Biomechanics Symposium (NWBS) May 2-3 hosted by the University of British Columbia. The Northwest Biomechanics Symposium is a student-friendly conference and incorporates research labs from all of the Northwest, including Canada.

Ally Clarke and Madeleine McCreary gave podium presentations at the conference in Vancouver. Mia Hoffman, Alisha Bose, and Katie Landwehr-Prakel each gave a poster presentation.

A special congratulations to Ally Clarke and Madeleine McCreary for receiving the Honorable Mention Award and Best Podium Award, respectively, in the PhD category.

We are looking forward to NWBS 2026 in Bozeman, MT!

National Biomechanics Day 2025

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On April 23, 2025, the Neuromechanics & Mobility Lab celebrated National Biomechanics Day (NBD) at the VA Puget Sound. Katie Landwehr-Prakel, alongside fellow biomechanics researchers with the Ingraham Lab, and Center for Limb Loss and MoBility (CLiMB) hosted over 75 students from a local high school. NBD is a world-wide celebration of Biomechanics in its many forms for high school students and teachers.

Katie, Siena, Annika, and Zijie hosted a station called “MyoDino: A Muscle Powered Dinosaur Game”. While discussing how muscle activity is measured in our research, students could play a “no-internet” Google chrome dinosaur jumping game on a computer, controlled by a stick-on arm surface EMG sensor.

Pitts MN, Ebers MR, Agresta CE, Steele KM (2025) Evaluating Sparse Inertial Measurement Unit Configurations for Inferring Treadmill Running Motion

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Journal Article in Sensors

 Inertial measurement units (IMUs) are used to analyze running performance. While leveraging one sensor to estimate kinematic and kinetic variables is common, sparsity limits the number of digital biomarkers that can be evaluated.

An illustration demonstrating experimental factors influencing the accuracy of motion inference when using Shallow recurrent decoder networks (SHRED) can reconstruct a dense set of time-series signals from a single input sensor. Running speed and sampling rate were most influential, while sensor location, and sensor type were neutral.Aim: Shallow recurrent decoder networks (SHRED) can reconstruct a dense set of time-series signals from a single input sensor and have been successful in human mobility applications, highlighting the potential for this algorithm to monitor running.

Methods: We trained and tested subject-specific SHRED models of nine subjects running on a treadmill to map from one input sensor to the remaining three IMUs. We varied the type of input to reflect experimental parameters that are important in running studies—sensor location, sensor type, sampling rate, and running speed—and compared the error of inferred signals from each input type.

Results: Sensor location and type did not impact SHRED inference accuracy, while decreasing the sampling rate affected the accuracy of ankle measurements. All ankle acceleration inferences from these models remained below the minimal detectable change threshold of 12.0 m/s2. SHRED models trained and tested at multiple speeds did not accurately infer IMU measurements below this threshold.

Interpretation: SHRED may broaden the scope of motion analysis by expanding access to data with fewer sensors. The data from this study and an instructional Jupyter notebook for training and testing individualized SHRED models are available at [link to GitHub].

CR DeVol, SR Shrivastav, VM Landrum, KF Bjornson, D Roge, CT Moritz, KM Steele (2025) “Effects of spinal stimulation and short-burst treadmill training on gait biomechanics in children with cerebral palsy”

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Journal article in Gait & Posture

Children with cerebral palsy (CP) have an injury to the central nervous system around the time of birth that affects the development of the brain and spinal cord. This injury leads to changes in gait neuromechanics, including muscle activity and joint kinematics. Transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation (tSCS) is a novel neuromodulation technique that may improve movement and coordination in children with CP when paired with targeted physical therapy.

Example kinematics and muscles activity at each assessment timepoint for P03’s more-affected side. A) Sagittal-plane hip, knee, and ankle kinematics over the gait cycle. Horizontal colored lines indicate where there were significant changes in kinematics over each phase of the study based on statistical parametric mapping (p Aim: How does the combination of tSCS and short-burst interval locomotor treadmill training (SBLTT) affect individual gait neuromechanics in children with CP?

Methods: Four children with CP (4–13 years old), received 24 sessions each of SBLTT only and SBLTT with tSCS (tSCS+SBLTT). Clinical assessments of spasticity and passive range of motion (PROM), as well as biomechanical assessments of joint kinematics, musculotendon lengths, and muscle activity were recorded during overground, barefoot walking. Assessments were taken before and after each intervention, and 8-weeks later.

Results: The combination of tSCS+SBLTT led to greater increases in hip and knee extension than SBLTT only for three participants. Three children also became more plantarflexed at the ankle during stance after tSCS+SBLTT compared to SBLTT only. While tSCS+SBLTT reduced spasticity, these changes were only weakly correlated with changes in musculotendon lengths during gait or PROM, with the largest correlation between change in gastrocnemius operating musculotendon length during fast walking and gastrocnemius spasticity (R2 = 0.26) and change in plantarflexor PROM and gastrocnemius spasticity (R2 = 0.23).

Interpretation: Children with CP used a more upright, less crouched posture during gait after tSCS+SBLTT. Large reductions in spasticity after tSCS+SBLTT were only weakly correlated with changes in kinematics and PROM. Understanding the mechanisms by which tSCS may affect gait for children with CP is critical to optimize and inform the use of tSCS for clinical care.

APTA CSM 2025 Conference Recap

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Neuromechanics & Mobility Lab member, Mia Hoffman, attended the 50th Annual American Physical Therapy Association Combined Sections Meeting (APTA CSM) in Houston, TX on Feb 13-15, where thousands of PTs, PTAs, and students came together to learn, connect, and celebrate 50 years of innovation in physical therapy.

Mia, alongside IMPACT Collaboratory members Heather A. Feldner, PT, MPT, PhD and Tiffany Li, SPT, presented a workshop on “Co-Designing a Switch Accessible Digital Play Environment for Children in Partnership with Clinicians and Families“.

Three women stand together at a conference center. The women in the center is holding a bag containing the "switch kit" supplies.